Hundreds involved in fights at Gloucester Township Day, 10 teenagers arrested, police say
GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- Ten teenagers and two adults were arrested after multiple fights broke out at the Gloucester Township Day celebration Saturday night.
Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins said the problems started around 7:30 p.m. when he said at least 500 teenagers and young adults began arriving at Veterans Park ahead of the event's drone light show.
According to police, "security at the event began to notice an influx of juveniles and young adults being dropped off," and by around 8:40 p.m., "large groups" began fighting each other and running through the crowd.
The department said two people were arrested at that time, but the crowd remained "hostile and disorderly," prompting a call for additional GTPD officers and a mutual aid request from surrounding Camden County police agencies.
The drone show, which was originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m., started early because of the "volatility of the situation," police said.
To protect families at the park, officers moved the large group of teenagers and adults to The Marketplace, a shopping center across from the park on Chews Landing Road where multiple fights continued to break out between teenagers and young adults.
"Right in front of the officers, they didn't care. They start fighting, violently fighting," Harkins said. "Our officers interjected themselves heroically to keep them from getting hurt."
Terrence Smith was at the shopping center and shot cellphone video of large groups of young people chucking objects.
"Kids going crazy, breaking stuff. My son is sitting in the car watching all this while they're breaking [stuff]. It was bad," Smith said. "It's scary to raise your own kid in this world when stuff like that is happening with other kids."
Debbie Rayner was also at the shopping center.
"It was completely crazy and scary. It's not fair," Rayner said. "My son's 8 years old, and he's looking up at me with tears in his eyes."
Gloucester Township police said the fights continued for another two hours, and several kids reported being assaulted, two of whom had minor injuries.
In total, 10 teenagers, one 13-year-old, four 15-year-old, three 16-year-olds and two 17-year-olds, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct before being released to their guardians, police said. Along with the teens, two adults were arrested during the chaos, including an 18-year-old and a 33-year-old man from Camden, who police said rode his bike into a crowd of officers and knocked one GTPD officer to the ground.
That man was also charged with attempting to escape from police.
The officer knocked to the ground had sustained only minor injuries and refused medical treatment, Gloucester police said, plus two other officers also suffered minor injuries as they tried to break up the fights.
All three officers are expected to recover from their injuries.
"The officers who responded and showed great restraint when dealing with violent and agitating groups. The mutual aid received by the surrounding departments was unprecedented in Gloucester Township," Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins said in a statement.
The unrest was brought under control shortly after 11 p.m., the department said. In total, 68 GTPD officers were assigned or responded to the chaos at Gloucester Township Day, along with at least 30 mutual aid officers from Camden County and Deptford Township. Police also said that a countywide EMS Task Force was called to bring more EMS resources to the scene, and the Gloucester Township Police Special Response Team also responded.
"The officers, I can't say enough, they worked hard that night," Harkins said.
"The lawless of groups of unsupervised juveniles and young people acting with total disregard for others ruined a great family-oriented event which has taken place to raise funds for the Gloucester Township Scholarship Committee for over 40 years," Harkins continued. "This type of lawlessness and violent riotous behavior will not be tolerated, and will not define the great community of Gloucester Township."
Police said they believe most of the teenagers and young people, involved in the fights were not from Gloucester Township and had been dropped off at the event.
Harkins emphasized this is an active investigation and police are looking to make more arrests. GTPD is asking people to send any cellphone videos they recorded to investigators.
The incident at Gloucester Township Day is the latest instance of disruptions caused by young people to impact the Garden State. A chaotic weekend at the Jersey Shore over Memorial Day weekend prompted New Jersey's police union president to call for harsher penalties for kids and adults displaying bad behavior at the beach.
In Ocean City, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed and taken to the hospital after a fight broke out on the boardwalk on Saturday, May 25, and in Wildwood, city officials and police issued a state of emergency in the early morning hours of Memorial Day. The order, which shut down the boardwalk for several hours, came after the city's police department was inundated with calls for service related to an "extremely large number of young adults and juveniles" in town for the holiday weekend.